"Just Try It"

“Just try it.” Those were the words Celia said when referencing her breast milk. For those of you who do not know, I have two children, Jadon, who is 2 ½ years old and Hailey, who is 9 months old. Jadon was not breast fed as a baby because Celia believed that I would not wake up in the middle of the night with him. When we learned Celia was pregnant with Hailey Celia expressed she really wanted Hailey to be breast fed. “I feel like I missed out on the bonding opportunity with Jadon,” Celia would often say as if she needed to justify her logic by me.

9 months later Hailey is still breast feeding but it will only be for a short time more. My little princess is pulling herself up onto anything she can get her hands on and absolutely loves to eat. To this date, Hailey has not met a food she doesn’t like. Cheerios, she loves them. Honey Nut Cheerios, even better. Banana’s, Gerber baby food, pizza crust, you name it and that little girl will eat until her stomach is protruding past her knees. But what Hailey likes most of all, after all this time, is good ole fashion “Mom Juice.”

When my grandparents were here they were able to witness first hand just how much Hailey loves “Mom Juice.” Anytime Hailey would see Celia, after a significant amount of time had passed, Hailey would smile from ear to ear and mumble, “Mmm!”

To further demonstrate Hailey’s adoration for her mother’s milk happens almost every morning. In the morning, after I get home from my morning workout (PT) session, Celia will leave to get an hour of gym time in before I leave for work. During that hour a routine has fallen into place. I’ll change Hailey’s diaper and begin to feed her. On some mornings she will eat 2-3 containers of baby food and a box size serving of Cheerios. The girl is not hungry! However, whenever Celia will get home from the gym Hailey will suffer from short term memory loss and go bonkers for boob.

What I find really funny is how Hailey maneuvers her way around our house. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, no mystery there. But the shortest distance and the shortest amount of time don’t always coincide with one another. Case and point: Something that Hailey wants will be at point “A” and Hailey herself is point “B.” The only roadblock between what Hailey wants and Hailey are my legs. While a very successful and accomplished crawler she is, my legs are often too difficult of a task for Hailey to overcome.

The reason I say all of that is because the other night on our couch, point “A” was “Mom Juice” while Hailey was again point “B” with me in the middle. I could have been a good father and handed Hailey over to Celia, Celia could have been a good mother and reached for Hailey, or we both could laugh as Hailey grunted and crawled with all her might to reach Celia. Once Hailey finally got to the prize she didn’t cradle herself the way babies typically get fed. Hailey reinvented the wheel by eating and standing at the same time.

With Hailey coming completely unglued with every opportunity to get breast milk I think the curiosity was too great in Celia to be contained any longer. Celia tried her breast milk and much to her surprise she liked it. “Mmm. It’s sweet,” she said. After making similar comments for a few days I knew it was a matter of time until the offer was extended my way to sample some of her special home brewed breast milk.

“Just try it,” said Celia with her index finger extended my way.
“No thanks honey,” as I politely tried to sidestep the offer.
“It’s really not that bad. Hailey likes it.”

Well, I didn’t try the breast milk nor do I have any intentions on trying it anytime in the future. I love my wife and I love what makes Hailey’s milk but there is something very unappealing about breast milk.

“Just think. Years from now, when our kids are grown up you will be disappointed that you never tried any of my breast milk,” as Celia was resorting to a guilt trip as a final plea for me to try her milk.
“I’m quite comfortable that will never happen hon.”

I’ll leave the milk to Hailey because I know for the time being she cannot and will not turn down a swig of boob. Anytime or anyplace that girl can develop an appetite; as she so beautifully displayed inside of the Eiffel Tower.